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* 11:19 am - As I’ve said before, Stu Levine is an unabashedly horrible “star” witness. From the Sun-Times’ Tony Rezko trial blog…
This morning, star prosecution witness Stuart Levine says pleading guilty was one of the most significant days of his life. […]
Levine said he couldn’t tell jurors on what day he pleaded guilty.
“Can you tell them what month, sir?” Duffy asks.
No, Levine says.
“Could you give me the year?”
“No, sir,” Levine answered.
Duffy tossed out a mocking question: “Did you plead guilty?”
“Yes sir,” Levine quickly answered.
*** UPDATE *** 12:45 (Kevin): Levine amazed by “snorting sounds”:
Tony Rezko lawyer Duffy asked Levine whether Levine’s secretary heard him snorting Crystal Meth in his office.
“If my snorting was so loud that you could hear me through a wall or door, then I’m quite amazed by the loudness of my snorting,” Levine said, not flinching.
And then this:
Levine: “In order for us to communicate, Mr. Duffy, I would respectfully ask you to explain what you mean by ‘out of it’?”
Duffy: “Did you get hhhhigh at these parties,” Duffy asked with a sarcastic inflection in the word high. “And when I say high, you know what I mean?”
Levine: “Yes sir.:”
* Levine then described drug binges and how he formed two lines of drugs — one line of powder form of Special K and another narrow line of Crystal Meth. He’d then mix the two powders together and snort the combination through a short straw. He’d do 10 to 20 hits a night.
But Levine did draw the line:
He’d never drink alcohol with Special K. And he never would smoke or inject the drugs, he said.
I’m glad to see that he was being prudent. Could the defense ask for a better witness?
*** UPDATE *** 4:30 (Kevin): Levine enraged at drug use allegations:
Levine estimates he spent $2,000 a month and $20,000 a YEAR on drugs. He came up with that calculation, he said, just weeks before taking the witness stand. He read in the newspaper earlier this year that he was spending $25,000 a MONTH on Crystal Meth.
Levine specifically said remembers “distinctly being enraged at reading the Chicago Tribune,” over that report.“I made that calculation,” Levine said. He said of that estimate: “so outrageous was that figure that I took a moment to reflect and figure out approximately how much I was spending on drugs.”
The Sun-Times reported that same estimation about drug use — it came from a defense filing.
Levine is delivering his stalwart testimony. However, today’s $2,000-a-month drug estimate doesn’t seem to square with what Levine testified to earlier: that he spent $1 million on drug use between 2001 and 2004.
Levine tells Duffy he withdrew more than $1 million in cash in a five-year period but he maintains he only spent $2,000 or so on drugs each month. The rest of the cash was spent in a variety of different ways.
Here are some of them:
–$50,000 in December on Christmas gifts.
Levine paid his friend Dr. Weinstein’s secretary $2,500 at Christmas.
“Who got the remaining $47,500?” Duffy asked of the cash spent in December of 2001.Levine: “Doormen, waiters, secretaries who worked for other people…any number of people who served me in some capacty or another, all around town I made gifts to them,” Levine said. “I spent at Christmas time, approximately $50,000 a year, yes sir,” Levine said.
– He also gave his drug buddies “perhaps $100,000 a year”, in cash, to help them out when they needed it, including to help them pay tuition and other school costs.
–Levine also said he allegedly paid a $20,000 cash bribe to former Ald. Eddie Vrdolyak. They did not go into specifics over what the alleged bribe was for.
* Either way, there seems to be a contradiction in his testimony.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Apr 7, 08 @ 11:20 am
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Well, Levine is just one piece of this whole thing. Doesn’t is seem strange that Cellinin and Bib Bob K weren’t indicted.
Approx. 1/2 of Bob K’s $800k finder’s fee from Bear Stearns/Hurtgen went to a Rezko employee and later Rezko controlled companies.
Let see what happens when “Million Dollar Baby” takes the stand. I have a feeling that we will all be forgeting about Levine’s cross and instead only remember his allegations and the phone calls-which are plenty damning.
Comment by BIgWindy Monday, Apr 7, 08 @ 11:34 am
Finally, a poster that gets it. The Feds knew what they had in Levine, and would not have brought the case based solely on him. It’s not the feds that have dubbed him a star witness, it’s the media. This isn’t that type of case, it’s one where you use a witness to give an outline and overview and then have multiple corroborating witnesses and hard evidence to hammer down the details.
By the time this is over, the jury will remember that it’s not Levine on trial, and to just weigh the totality of the evidence. The Feds have tried (and won) a lot of cases with witnesses worse than Levine.
Comment by Matlack Monday, Apr 7, 08 @ 11:46 am
Not sure what “slimey foreigner” has to do with it. I just think these guys were juicing the system and that includes Cellini, Bob K, Levine, Cari, Hurtgen and et al. It just proves that there is too much money in the contraol of too few hands.
Comment by BIgWindy Monday, Apr 7, 08 @ 11:46 am
Someone please explain to me why he is the “star witness” again? Unreal…..
Comment by reasonable 1 Monday, Apr 7, 08 @ 12:25 pm
Not sure what you mean, Big Windy. Cellini and Kjellander aren’t on the witness list.
As for Levine, is he out on his own? Do the feds have him under wraps somewhere?
Comment by wordslinger Monday, Apr 7, 08 @ 12:28 pm
Levine’s answers to the pounding cross-exam by Rezko’s lawyer… are the ally that much different than Deputy Governor Louanner Peters’ were to the inquiries from legislators last week?
I think we all can stipulate to the fact Levine is a skumbag, even HE admits it, on the stand. That does not mean he can’t lead us to some true evidence anyhow. I think it is premature to call the case for Tony. The defense is trying very hard to waft away the smoke so we can’t tell where the fire was. I say the coals are still glowing.
Comment by Gregor Monday, Apr 7, 08 @ 12:41 pm
Just read the updateX1, this is hilarious, SNL needs to do a clip on this guy, after Obama is elected of course….:)
Comment by reasonable 1 Monday, Apr 7, 08 @ 1:15 pm
The feds have been known to railroad people into guilty verdicts and jail based on less than accurate evidence because they have a larger agenda as was displayed in 60 minutes expose of what happened to Siegelman. There is no doubt that Rod is an idiot, and Rezko a slimeball, but clearly Levine will say ANYTHING to make the feds happy and that includes making stuff up. It has happened before in these types of trials and it will always happen. The entire US justice department has been tainted with the stench of politics in recent years . Why should the Chicago office be any different than Alabama’s or Minneapolis or San Diego or the many others where it appears now proven and documented by whistleblowers that prosecutions were driven by politics ?
Comment by Don Siegelman Monday, Apr 7, 08 @ 2:53 pm
Is Joe Cari expected to testify on behalf of the prosecution in this one?
Comment by Canseco Monday, Apr 7, 08 @ 2:59 pm
When you know you are absolutely screwed by what the feds have on you, you are at first shaken. Then you go to the “let’s make a deal stage; “then to somewhat of a relief that you might live to see the light of day; then to the bitter resentment of being forced to crawl and heel. I think we at the “bitter resentment” stage thus the sarcastic and “help the feds be damned” attitude. This fellow will simply help corroborate some of the facts, thus adding another straw to the camel’s back.
Comment by Justice Monday, Apr 7, 08 @ 3:31 pm
How did this guy develop any kind of influence? So here he is, describing his apparently huge intake of illegal drug use. Is he going to jail for the stuff he has testified to have snorted? If not, anyone doing time for anything less than several pounds of pot got ripped huge.
Comment by zatoichi Monday, Apr 7, 08 @ 4:00 pm
I am getting to where I don’t even believe that Levine did all of the drugs that he admits to. If he did, is he supposedly clean now and how did that happen? Or is he on a methadone program?
He wants us to believe that he went to the Purple Hotel and did drugs all day and at 5pm, just went home like he had been at work. Does that sound likely to anyone?
Could he have made up this drug story to hide what money he has left? (by saying he spent it on drugs?) M.O.O.
Comment by Shelbyville Monday, Apr 7, 08 @ 4:33 pm
Z
the guy worked up the influence ladder by piling a lot of cash on Jim Ryan and Lee Daniels
Comment by Sock Puppet Express Monday, Apr 7, 08 @ 5:58 pm
One would certainly expect that Joe Cari will be called as a witness and then it could be all but over for Blago. “Birds of a feather that flew together.”
Comment by To Canseco wrote Monday, Apr 7, 08 @ 7:00 pm